


When Things Finally Change

by crystallights



Category: Momoland (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band), TOMORROW X TOGETHER | TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: All characters are the same age, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Background Huening Kai and Soobin, Background Verkwan, Biracial Idol Line, Chemistry, DC Universe Inspired, DC Universe Inspo, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Fuck Group Projects, Gen, IDK much about the hard sciences I’m sorry, M/M, Nancy-Centric, Physics, Science Project, Slow Burn, Superhero!AU, Superhero/K-Pop!AU, The K-PopSuperhero!AU no one asked for, The Nancy Huening Kai Vernon crossover no one asked for but here it is, Various Super Powers but I don’t want to spoil anything, group project, high school!au, mild violence, no beta we die like men, nothing too gory though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26102086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallights/pseuds/crystallights
Summary: Nancy has always had an affinity for superheroes.Seeing them be so selfless and save the world for others? It almost made her wish she had superpowers herself.But in reality, she didn’t need that kind of stress in her life.She already had a crush on a friend from her dance team, Lee Yeonwoo, and she’s stuck working with a couple of clowns for a science project, namely Kai Huening and Vernon Chwe.But when things go awry with said clowns, and they fuck up just a little bit working on their said project together, Nancy is in for a bit of a treat.Especially when she has to work with them to figure out why random people in their high school keep going missing.And they have to work quickly too, because something (or mayhapssomeone) tells her that some people she cares about are on the verge of going missing as well.Alternatively: Will a girl, who loves the prospect of being a superhero (but for all the wrong reasons), be able to band together with her fellow clowns to create a successful circus when there's a real threat in town? IDK send help.
Relationships: Lee Dabin | Yeonwoo/Nancy McDonie
Comments: 6
Kudos: 3





	1. In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> **Author’s Note** :
> 
> Hi guys! I’m so glad to be back with another story! I’m super excited for this fic because I love superheroes, so I thought combining two of my interests would be fun LOL.  
> This is the first fic I’m writing where I don’t have everything prewritten, so I’m sorry if updates are super inconsistent, especially with college right around the corner! I will try to prewrite as much as I can though, so I don’t leave without updates for too long.  
> (I’m not going to lie though, the thought of publishing a story without chapters already being prewritten is giving me anxiety, because I will have to write as I go, so I would really appreciate it if you guys gave me feedback to let me know if you’re liking the direction the story is going or not)! 
> 
> And now, for some extra notes:
> 
> \- First of all, this story is Nancy-centric. She is an idol I relate to a lot, so I really wanted to write a story with her as the main character. But, I felt the only ship that I could do justice in Momoland was Nanwoo, so I decided to give it a whirl. However, as a Merry-go-round myself, I understand that Yeonwoo’s departure can be a hard topic to address, and stories with Nanwoo at the center could potentially be upsetting. I completely understand if you do not feel comfortable reading a story with a departed member, and I urge you not to read this story if that aspect could upset you.  
> \- Second of all, there will be violence in this book, but I won’t write anything too gory, bloody, or graphic just because I am a bit squeamish myself LOL. However, all jokes aside, I will put trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters that contain scenes where violence and blood are mentioned. Read at your own discretion.  
> \- Third of all, to tie in with my previous point, there will also be at least one scene for sure where a character is showing symptoms of a panic attack. This will also have a trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter. (If more scenes discussing/containing panic attacks or anything similar are added, there will also be respective trigger warnings at the beginning of those chapters). Read at your own discretion.  
> \- Fourth of all, I will be using idols as antagonists in this story, however, the way I write them in my story is not reflective of how I view them in real life.  
> \- Lastly, on a much more lighthearted note, I really wanted to write a story including biracial idols from groups I stan at the center of the story. As a biracial Asian myself, they helped me a lot with accepting and embracing my Asian identity! I owe a good portion of my self acceptance to them, and this story, in a way, is me thanking them for the help they didn’t even know they gave me. <3
> 
> Ok, so I think that was everything I had to say. Now, without further ado, welcome to When Things Finally Change! I hope you enjoy your stay! <3

_“Do I dare disturb the universe? In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot_

Growing up, Nancy always admired superheroes.

They were always people she looked up to, even if they were seemingly fictional. 

As a child, she always marveled at the way they were always eager to help people and do things for the greater good, even if they had flaws within themselves. And, as she got older, she never failed to see how painstakingly _human_ so many superheroes were, even if they were anything but (I’m looking at you Miss Martian). 

Many heroes, no matter how _perfect_ they were painted out to be, were actually incredibly flawed. 

So of course, she always found inspiration and solidarity in heroes like Batman, Spiderman, Zatanna, and of course, the hottest man alive, Ironman. They all had flaws, but they still managed to somehow work past them to keep going and do better. 

She admired their morals (no matter how grey they could get), their ability to grow and learn from their pasts, their ability to put aside differences and work with others, and how they were always willing to be selfless for the greater good. 

But if someone ever gave Nancy the _option_ to become a superhero? No thank you. 

Not that she was incredibly _opposed_ to being a superheroine (she had her fair share of daydreaming about kicking ass), but she just didn’t think she’d be a particularly good one.

She knew the best superheroes were incredibly _imperfect_ , but she just felt like her imperfections would only become much more glaringly obvious if she was ever given powers to go along with them. 

All the qualities that Nancy admired her favorite superheroes for, she found a stunning lack of in herself. 

Her morality was skewed, more than an average superhero, she hated change, so she hardly ever gave herself room to grow, and, as much as she hated to admit it, she was _incredibly_ selfish, most of the time, only looking out for herself, even if she wanted others to be there for her. 

She couldn’t trust herself to make decisions for the greater good, not fall into old habits, work well with others, or to use her powers for the benefits of others rather than herself. 

So, in conclusion, she would _literally_ be the worst superhero _ever_. 

And, besides, she _already_ had a lot on her plate. 

She was, in fact, a high school student, and besides failing her way through physics and unfortunately having to down at _least_ three cups of coffee before 8 AM, she was also on the dance team with Lee Yeonwoo, who she may or may not have a crush on. 

But, that was neither here nor there. 

And, as things in her life normally went, things got worse. 

Just for shits and giggles, for the Three Fates, if you will. 

Because, Nancy’s back-of-the-mind daydreaming of becoming a superhero came to fruition when a dumbass physics teacher decided it would be a _grand_ idea to give their class a group project with predetermined partners. 

But, let’s start from the beginning.

And in the beginning, there was a crush. 

Nancy remembers the day that she realized that she had feelings for Yeonwoo back when she ruined her hair by dyeing it green a couple years back. 

Ahin was there, doing her civic duty as a best friend by trying to help her through The Green Hair Fiasco™ of two years ago, when Nancy was crying in the bathroom over how bad she thought her hair looked. 

“Nancy, come _on_!” Ahin says, standing outside the bathroom stall. “You look _great_ with the green hair, and the more you cry about it, the puffier your eyes are going to look, and I _know_ you don’t want that. Now, please stop crying or we’re going to be late!” 

“You go to class!” Nancy says from inside the stall, her voice quivering. “The choir teacher will yell at you if you don’t go; let me bear this suffering on my own!”

Nancy knew she was being a _bit_ overdramatic, but she really just wanted to mourn about her now ruined hair. 

“Nancyyy,” Ahin says, exasperated, banging on the bathroom stall. “You are being dramatic! Stop! I wouldn’t have let you come to school if I didn’t think your hair looked good. Let’s go!” 

As soon as Ahin finishes talking, Nancy hears the bathroom door open and sees Ahin move her feet closer together. 

“Oh, hey _Yeonwoo_! What’s up?” Ahin says, emphasizing Yeonwoo’s name, causing Nancy to tense up.

_Shit_ , Nancy thinks. _Now I definitely can’t leave._

Up until this point, Nancy looked at Yeonwoo with admiration of course, both as someone older than her, and as her talented friend on the dance team. 

Undeniably, Yeonwoo was pretty, sweet, funny (sometimes teasing Nancy to the point where they were both in tears from laughter), but she was also down to earth, and smart, able to analyze the themes of _One Piece_ way past anything that Nancy could even begin to understand. 

But Nancy most _definitely_ did not like her like _that_. 

No matter _how_ much Ahin insisted that she was crushing. 

“Hey Ahin! Nothing much, but I was actually looking for Nancy. I had a question to ask her, and I was hoping to catch her before dance class so we could walk together. Have you seen her?” Yeonwoo asks. 

Nancy freaks out and quickly wipes the remaining residue of tears off her face as she braces herself for Ahin’s answer. 

“Yeah, um actually, she’s right here,” Ahin says, and hits the side of the bathroom stall that Nancy is in. 

Nancy gets up from the toilet seat and opens the door of the bathroom stall. 

“Hey, Dabin,” Nancy says unsteadily, not sure if using Yeonwoo’s real name was a good or bad idea. 

“Oh, hey Gru,” Yeonwoo says smiling, turning towards Nancy. 

Nancy felt her stomach leap at Yeonwoo using her nickname. 

“Did you say you were looking for me?” Nancy asks. 

“Yeah, I was going to ask you about the dance routine, but I really like your hair!” Yeonwoo says, reaching for Nancy’s hair. “The green looks really good!”  
Nancy tenses up as Yeonwoo’s hand touches her hair. 

“Um, you do?” Nancy squeaks out. 

“See Nancy, I told you it looked good,” Ahin chimes in, a knowing look on her face. 

Nancy smiles at Ahin, then she feels Yeonwoo tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. 

“She’s right, it really suits you,” Yeonwoo says with a soft smile. 

Nancy smiled back at Yeonwoo, feeling her chest tighten with a new and different feeling, something that she’s never really felt before. 

She goes on the rest of her day in a pretty good mood, even if she didn’t love the way her hair looked, because the girl that she definitely _didn’t_ like, had complimented her on it. 

Later that day, maybe by the force of one Lee Ahin, Nancy sees a note “ _Nancy is pretty!_ ” and a little puppy that Yeonwoo always liked to draw, written on the whiteboard she had on her locker. 

Maybe her green hair really wasn’t that bad. 

And maybe, _just maybe_ , she did like Yeonwoo. 

But only a little bit.

Two years later, and Nancy’s crush still hadn’t subsided. 

So, that was how she found herself sitting in physics class, actively trying not to turn around to stare at Yeonwoo because literally _what the hell_. How was someone legally allowed to be that pretty? 

Overall, Nancy had learned to deal with her crush and make it less obvious, at least to most of the world. Ahin still insisted that her crush was _blaringly_ obvious, but that was probably (hopefully) because she was her best friend and knew her scarily well. 

She was able to act normal (at least most of the time) around Yeonwoo. 

Ahin _insisted_ that Yeonwoo liked her back, as did their other close friend Nayun, but Nancy simply refused to believe it (and confess). 

The thing about having a crush for an extended period of time is that eventually, you just get used to it. It’s almost like a thing that you get used to having around, like an annoying little sibling you tried to get rid of, but your parents tell you that you can’t do that. You don’t get rid of it, but your life doesn’t revolve around it either. A nice balance. 

That was Nancy’s crush on Yeonwoo. 

And while Ahin still occasionally teased her about it, and Nayun pushed her to confess, and even _if_ she still sometimes felt butterflies in her stomach when Yeonwoo looked at her a certain way, she still had no plans to confess in the future. 

Because why would she potentially risk ruining her existing friendship with Yeonwoo if she was totally fine with just being her friend and pining after her? 

Ding ding ding. You’re right, she wouldn’t. 

So that’s how Nancy found herself still able to mostly function like a normal person even if Yeonwoo was in the same physics class and dance team as her. 

And, that was how, as Nancy sat in said physics class, browsing through the internet instead of listening, which might have contributed to her slipping grades, but it’s not like her teacher was saying anything of _that_ much importance right now, she wasn’t even thinking of about Yeonwoo sitting several rows behind her. 

And, thank goodness Yeonwoo wasn’t on her mind, because she was going to need every single ounce of mental strength she had to get through that class period. 

Because that day, her physics professor (and part time philosopher) Mr. Kim, assigned the entire class a _delightful_ group project. 

“This will be a great way for you guys to work together and run trials and experiments with different things like _real_ scientists!” Mr. Kim says in an enthusiastic, yet somehow still monotone, voice. “So, I’ve taken the liberty onto myself and put you all into groups because I feel like the chemistry in this class is a bit… lackluster,” he continues, gesturing animatedly towards the class. 

“Well, this is a physics class, not a chemistry class,” Kai Huening, clever talker and local heart throb (if you were _into_ that, of course, which Nancy was _not_ ), says. 

“Well, you bring up a great point there,” the professor says, pointing at Kai. “But you have to understand, physics intersects with _everything_.” The professor puts his hands down on his desk for emphasis. “It intersects with chemistry in the laboratory, and between human beings as well.”  
Nancy finally looks up from her computer, her interest caught. She wasn’t particularly opposed to working on a group project with random people, but she _much_ rather just do the damn project with Ahin. 

And, the prospect of being put in a group together with Yeonwoo made her stress levels rise.

“I get that, but why do we have to work in pre-chosen groups? Group chemistry is much better whenever we work in groups that _we_ , ourselves, choose,” Kai continues. 

“He’s only saying that because he wants to work with Soobin,” Ahin whispers to Nancy from beside her. 

Nancy stifles a laugh. 

As she was watching Kai debate with Mr. Kim and attempt to (but to no avail) convince him to allow them to work in groups they choose, she couldn’t help but feel a tinge of jealousy for how confident he seemed. The boy _radiated_ confidence, seemingly without _any_ effort at all, and Nancy, someone who was much too afraid to admit her feelings to herself, let alone the person she actually likes, admired that (as much as she really hated to admit it). 

“Yes, but real nature hardly takes your feelings into account,” the professor continues. “Real nature doesn’t care if atoms are uncomfortable or not, they are put together because that’s just what nature does.” 

“So, when are you going to reveal the groups?” a girl from across the room, Jane, who was also on the dance team with Nancy and Yeonwoo, chimed in, seemingly irritated at Kai and the professor talking. 

The professor looked out towards the class and smiled, seeming a _bit_ too enthusiastic. “Thank you for the enthusiasm, Jane! Now, you’re going to be in groups of three, and you just have to construct a project that focuses on an area of physics that you’re interested in,” he says as he walks to his desk and scrolls through his computer. 

“Could he be any more vague about what exactly he wants with this project?” Ahin whispers again to Nancy. 

“I know right! And then he’ll get pissed at us for not doing exactly what _he_ wants,” Nancy whispers back. 

“I’ll put the groups up on the projector,” the professor says, pulling the screen down. 

Nancy looked through the names on the projector, waiting to see who she would be paired up with. 

Of course, she simultaneously wanted and didn’t want to be paired up with Yeonwoo. Nancy could take this as an opportunity to know more about Yeonwoo in an academic setting, since their friendship was mostly based on dance class and casually hanging out, but she hardly knew anything about her in an academic school setting. 

However, she knew it would be best for her mental health, grades, and sanity to _not_ be paired up with her. Not that she wouldn’t be able to focus on the project, but she might look at the project as an opportunity to hang out with Yeonwoo as opposed to an actual project. 

And, _maybe_ she would be distracted by Yeonwoo’s drop dead gorgeous looks instead of working on the project, but Nancy digresses. 

But, maybe, as she looked at who she was actually paired up with, being paired up with Yeonwoo might have been better. 

“I’m with Kai and Vernon,” Nancy says, visibly deflating. She turns to Ahin. “Who are you with?”

“I’m with Yeonwoo and Soobin,” Ahin says. “Don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word for you,” she continued in a teasing voice, putting an arm around Nancy. 

“ _Ahin_ ,” Nancy says, in a bit of a whining voice, shrugging Ahin’s arm off. 

Nancy didn’t really know Kai and Vernon that well, even if she knew of them, so she really couldn’t put her finger on why she was so upset about being paired up with them. 

Kai was a quick-witted, sharp-tongued boy, albeit, quite funny, even Nancy could admit to that. He also had girls (and some boys as well, unsurprisingly) chasing after him 24/7, but seemed to only have heart eyes for Soobin (who seemed much too oblivious to notice). 

Vernon, on the other hand, was a bit more calm, quiet, and observant; however, he did still have a bit of a goofy side that he showed around people he was more comfortable with. He, unlike Kai, was taken, by the one and only Boo Seungkwan of course, because Seungkwan had confessed by accident at a party, and luckily, Vernon did reciprocate his feelings. (Or, in this case, Vernon was the oblivious one, but unlike Kai, Seungkwan was willing to do something about it).

And it’s not that she didn’t like them either, but her issue was that she just didn’t know them. And, of course, Nancy being herself, she wasn’t really jumping at the opportunity to get to know them, and she would have been much more comfortable grouped with people she already knew. 

That could just be her disdain for working in groups in general, but once again, Nancy digresses. 

“What if we’re not happy with who we got paired up with?” Jane asks from across the classroom.

Nancy glances at the projector to see who Jane was seemingly so pissed to have been paired up with. 

Jane had gotten paired with Jooe and another girl named Joy. 

Nancy didn’t really know much about Jooe, but she knew that she tended to act without thinking, causing her to do some questionable things (including accidentally doing a silly improv dance to the school fight song resulting in the cheer coach recruiting her to be mascot). 

Joy on the other hand, was a bit of a mystery to her. She was seemingly popular and put together, even somehow being a part of both the dance team and the science club. But, she also came off as a real bitch sometimes, so Nancy and her friends decided to steer clear of her most of the time.

“So,” Mr. Kim continues, pretty much ignoring Jane’s question, “you guys can get together with your groups to talk and get acquainted with each other. Just spread out around the room.” 

Ahin and Nancy got up, Ahin going to join her group while Nancy just awkwardly stood by her desk waiting to see if the other two boys were already together or not. 

“You’re Nancy right?” says a voice from behind her. 

Nancy flinches in surprise and quickly turns around to see Vernon standing behind her. 

“Uh, yeah, I am,” Nancy says sheepishly. She holds out her hand for a handshake. “You’re Vernon right?”

Vernon takes her hand and shakes it. “Yeah, I am. And, we’re with K-”

“Hi guys, I’m Kai,” pipes up a bright voice from beside Vernon and Nancy. 

Both of them turn and look at Kai, wondering how the boy seemingly appeared out of thin air.

“Um, hi,” Nancy says, once again holding out her hand for them to shake. “I’m Nancy.” 

“I’m Vernon,” Vernon says, holding out his hand as well. 

Kai shakes both of their hands respectively and gives them both a smile. 

“Well, what are your guys’ thoughts on this project?” Kai asks, breaking the ice. 

Nancy is working to string together a thought on why physics literally makes her want to cry for hours on end and how the velocity equation literally makes no sense to her and how Mr. Kim, while an _extremely_ nice guy, don’t get her wrong, is literally torturing her with this group project. 

But, Vernon speaks up first, and probably for the best. 

“I’m actually pretty excited about it!” Vernon says, a small smile complimenting his features. “My mom is actually a chemical engineer.”

Nancy smiles at him. “That’s so cool! I’m glad at least one of us is excited because I’m kind of dreading this, honestly,” Nancy says with a small laugh.

“Same here,” Kai adds sheepishly. “I’m sorry Vernon,” he continues, putting one of his hands on Vernon’s shoulder. “You got stuck with us, and neither of us are really looking forward to this project.”

“It’s ok,” Vernon says with a laugh. “But, may I ask you guys why you’re both seemingly dreading this project?” 

Nancy winces. She wasn’t supposed to expose her rapidly declining grades this early in meeting her project partners, but she supposed that she had to tell them at some point. 

“Physics just isn’t my strong suit,” Nancy admitted, wringing her hands together. “I’m actually kind of failing this class right now, if that gives you context to how bad I am at physics.” 

Vernon looks at her sympathetically. “It’s ok, I understand that physics can be incredibly difficult to grasp. But don’t worry, I will attempt to get your grade up to passing by helping you understand this project.” He turns towards Kai. “Why are you dreading it?”

“I’m not necessarily dreading it, but I’m just worried about how to actually execute this project. He seems like he’s being so general by saying ‘any area of physics,’” Kai says, making air quotes. “Like, what does that even mean.” 

Vernon laughs at this while Nancy softly smiles. 

She didn’t know Vernon that well, but the times she did see him around school, he seemed so stoic and serious. She had seen him laugh more in this five minute conversation than she had since she had known of his existence at her school. 

It was interesting to see this different side of him. 

“Well, both of you happen to be in luck because this happens to be my favorite class,” Vernon says, matter-of-factly. “And, I can definitely get my mom to help us.” 

Nancy feels a wave of relief rush over her. “That is so great to hear! Thank you so much!” 

“Of course,” Vernon says, giving her a small smile back. 

“So, when do we want to start working on this?” Kai asks. 

“As soon as possible probably. What do you think?” Nancy asks, looking towards Vernon. 

“We can start brainstorming tomorrow night if you guys want,” Verenon says. “And we can meet up at my house if that’s ok with you guys. My mom’s lab is in the basement, so that could be a good place to start planning our project.” 

Both Kai and Nancy nod at Vernon’s proposal, glad to see that he seems confident in what he’s doing. 

After physics class, and after exchanging numbers with both Kai and Vernon, she was on her way to her dance class. 

She was glad to see that both of her project partners were cool people that seemed nice and like they would actually put effort into the project. And, while it might be premature, through that one conversation with both Vernon and Kai, she felt like they would get along well as a group.

As she was walking to the studio absorbed in her thoughts, she ran into someone by accident. 

“I’m so sorry,” Nancy replies quickly, regaining her footing. 

She looks up to come face to face with Joy, the girl Jane was paired up with. 

Joy didn’t say anything, she just continued to stand by her locker and glare coldly at Nancy, her face unnerving. 

Nancy felt extremely small under her gaze, and was about to mumble out another apology before she heard a voice behind her. 

“Hey, Nancy,” Yeonwoo says, catching up to Nancy, linking an arm with her. “Walk with me to class.” She drags Nancy away from Joy, but Nancy still feels her gaze on her back as she walks away with Yeonwoo. 

“She’s so intimidating,” Yeonwoo says softly, unlinking her arm from Nancy’s. “I’ve ran into her at dance class before, and she always gave me the _worst_ looks even after I apologize.” 

“She seems to be like that with everyone though, especially in dance class,” Nancy replies, thinking back to when Joy had yelled at a girl for not getting the counts right the first day of practice. 

“I know,” Yeonwoo says. “And it’s so strange too because Yeri is constantly telling me that ‘she’s not that bad,’ and she gets along with her really well too. Maybe that’s just because Yeri and Joy have known each other since grade school.” 

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Nancy says, absentmindedly nodding her head. “It’s just so surprising that those two could be such good friends because they’re polar opposites.” 

Yeri was bright and bubbly, always either smiling or laughing about something, while Joy was extremely aloof and rarely smiled or laughed. 

Yeonwoo nods at Nancy’s response, but decides to switch the topic to something else.

“Who are you with for the project?” she muses.

“I’m with Vernon and Kai,” Nancy responds. She decided to ask Yeonwoo who was in her group, even if she knew the answer already. “Who’s in your group?”

“Ahin and Soobin,” Yeonwoo says, smiling softly. “I already know Ahin pretty well because of you,” Yeonwoo says softly, bumping her hip to Nancy’s, “and Soobin seems really sweet! I’m excited to work with them.” 

Nancy finds herself smiling like an idiot at Yeonwoo’s slight contact, but thank goodness her subconscious was listening for her and she answered before she even realized she did.

“That’s good,” Nancy started, slowly zoning back in. “I’m glad you’re excited for the project.”

“Are you?” Yeonwoo asks. 

Nancy blinks. “Not really. Physics just isn’t my thing,” she responds.

“I understand,” Yeonwoo says. “This is the hardest class I’ve ever had the displeasure of taking.” 

Nancy laughs at this.

“Why are you laughing at me? It’s true!” Yeonwoo continues, after she notices Nancy laughing. “You would never understand; you’re so good at everything,” she finishes, putting an arm around Nancy.

Nancy leans into Yeonwoo’s touch and laughs even harder. 

“That’s not true,” Nancy replies, still laughing. “I just showed you my physics grade last week. It’s a miracle I haven’t gotten a letter from the school telling me to go to tutoring.” 

Yeonwoo laughs at this, and Nancy takes in the sound of her laugh. 

“Maybe this project will hopefully bring your physics grade up then,” Yeonwoo says, leaning her head on top of Nancy’s. 

“Yeah,” Nancy says softly, “hopefully it will.” 

She walks down the hall towards the dance studio content. Yeonwoo’s arm was around her, both of them were laughing and enjoying the moment. 

With as close as she and Yeonwoo were, Nancy thought about being upfront with her about her feelings. 

But everytime Nancy tried to push herself to stop being a coward, she almost always chickened out, convincing herself it would be best if they just stayed friends. 

She was already happy with things as they were anyway. 

_But you could be happier._


	2. Creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group of clowns come together to work and brainstorm on their project, but some unfortunate circumstances result in superpowers and team bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I’ve decided that since I’ve been pretty busy with uni, I’m going to try my best to update this story once a month! Thank you to everyone who has read, commented, or left kudos on this story! It really means a lot because this story is dear to my heart, even if it’s struggled with gaining traction. <3
> 
> TW: Blood, loud noises, breaking glass, pain, and mild hysteria!  
> TW: In this chapter, Nancy has symptoms of and experiences a panic attack! As someone who has experienced panic attacks before, I know that this can be a sensitive topic for people to read about.   
> DO NOT read past the line _Nancy opens her mouth, ready to respond_ if you are sensitive to any of the above trigger warnings.   
> Please stay safe, and enjoy Chapter 2 of _When Things Finally Change_!!

_'That is not it at all, that is not what I meant, at all.’- The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot_

Nancy was wrong. 

She had claimed when she first met both Vernon and Kai that all three of them seemed like they would get along well. 

And, for the most part, that was true, at least for one half of the duo. 

The other half, (or more specifically one by the name of _Kai Huening_ ) was not incredibly keen on getting along with her, _especially_ while they were brainstorming. 

The group was sitting in Vernon’s basement lab on a rainy Friday night, attempting to come up with a decent project, but the process was slowly becoming incredibly painful. 

The prospective thunderstorm outside wasn’t helping the group dynamic much either. 

As the group is sitting silently, brainstorming their own individual ideas, there’s a crash of thunder outside, and Nancy jumps and covers her mouth at the sudden noise. Even Kai and Vernon are caught off guard, Kai nearly knocking his laptop off the table. 

Nancy glances out the basement window to see lightning dancing outside and hearing the answering thunder right after. 

Vernon, also seemingly entranced with the naturalistic lightshow going on outside, gets up and draws the curtains to block the possible distraction from outside. 

Nancy takes her attention away from the basement window as well, and forces herself to do some more reading on other possible projects they could do. 

The group hadn’t really talked that much, but almost every idea that Nancy had suggested ended with Kai disagreeing with her for seemingly no other reason than she couldn’t explain what the actual “physics” of whatever she was suggesting. 

Which, as much as Nancy hated to admit it, _was_ a valid point. 

But, him calling her The Ice Queen™ after snapping at him once or twice was a bit excessive. 

Her patience began to wear excessively thin somewhere in between her suggestions of a solar powered oven and a Rube Goldberg Machine.

“What if we made a Tesla turbine?” Nancy asked, sitting at one end of the lab table in Vernon’s basement. 

“What even is a Tesla turbine?” Kai says apathetically, typing on his laptop to searching it up.

“It’s some sort of turbine Nichola Tesla invented,” Nancy responds. “I’m not too sure what it is or what it does, but we can construct it out of CDs, so it seems simple enough.” 

“So if you don’t even know what it does,” Kai starts, looking up from his laptop, “and you barely know how to construct it, then why would you suggest it?” 

There’s annoyance evident in his voice, and Nancy shoots him a glare. 

“Well, at least I’m _trying_. At least I’ve _suggested_ possible projects we could do,” Nancy says, exasperated. “How about instead of complaining, why don’t you do some of your own re-”

“At its essence, it’s a bladeless turbine,” Vernon intervenes, just before the argument between Kai and Nancy could get any worse, something that he had been doing for the past twenty minutes. “It can power things hypothetically, but if I’m being honest, I’m not too sure how that works either,” he continues sheepishly. 

Both Nancy and Kai turned to look at Vernon. 

Silence hangs heavy in the air for a bit, making the atmosphere just a bit uncomfortable, until Kai says something to break the ice.

“Ok, Vernon, I’m not trying to be rude, I’m genuinely asking, but since you are more familiar with this kind of stuff, what do _you_ suggest we do for this project?” he asks. 

Vernon stops and thinks for a second. 

“Well, I’m a bit more familiar with chemistry, so maybe we can do something along those lines, like maybe talk about buffers, kinetics, or creating a circuit,” he replies.

“I think that would be cool,” Nancy says. “And that way we can tie chemistry into our project too, since Mr. Kim thinks it’s so ‘lacking,’” Nancy continues sarcastically, making air quotes. 

Kai lets out a laugh. “True, we should do that and rub it in his face.” Then Kai turns to Vernon. “Do you think your mom could help us out with ideas and how to execute them?” 

Vernon’s eyes widen a bit, then he gets up from his chair.

“Yeah, I’m sure she would be keen to help us,” he replies, pushing his chair under the table. “Let me go see if she’s home now.” 

He turns to walk out the door then stops right before he turns the knob. 

“Also, please don’t fuck anything up in the lab while I’m gone. My mom will literally kill me,” Vernon says, somehow still in a calm voice. 

“Aye aye, captain,” Kai reassures, giving a small and lazy salute to him.

Vernon turns back towards the door and lets himself out. As soon as Vernon is out of the room, Kai turns to Nancy. 

“How are your chemistry skills?” Kai asks her.

“They’re shitty, but better than my physics skills, or lack thereof,” Nancy responds, looking up from her laptop. “At least I understood what was going on in chemistry most of the time. How about yours?”

“Um, well, I kind of slept through it,” Kai admits sheepishly. “Soobin helped me through a lot of it.”

This statement catches Nancy’s attention, and she proceeds to take her attention completely away from her laptop.

“So, you and Soobin, huh?” Nancy says, offering a small smile and raising her eyebrows. 

Kai flushes just a bit and turns towards the basement window. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Kai responds, looking pretty much everywhere but at Nancy. “We’re friends, so naturally of course, I would ask him for help in chemistry when I struggled.” 

Nancy nodded her head, but the gears in her head were turning.

She had _never_ seen Kai flustered like this, even if she didn’t have many interactions with him before this. Even when he was talking to Soobin upfront, he was never _this_ caught off guard. 

“Why are you flustered?” she asks Kai.

“I’m _not_ flustered,” Kai responds, looking back at Nancy.

“Then why are you acting like this?”

“Like what?”

“You keep avoiding my questions!”

Kai huffs and turns back to his laptop, somehow now set on doing his work for some reason.

Nancy laughs softly and debates internally within herself to see if she should let Kai in on a little not-so-secret secret.

“If I can be honest,” Nancy starts, and looks at Kai to gauge what she should say next. Kai looks up from his laptop at her. Nancy takes a deep breath. “I’m fairly certain you have a crush on Soobin.” 

Kai’s eyes widen, and he looks back towards his laptop and starts rapidly typing.

“I, once again, have no clue what you’re talking about,” he replies, his hands flying across his keyboard. 

“Kai,” Nancy says, sighing. “It’s ok if you like him, you know that, right? Liking boys is totally o-”

“It’s not even the problem that everyone knows. I don’t even care if the whole school knew that I liked Soobin. But, if you know, that means I must be incredibly obvious, so I just want to know if the boy that I _do_ like likes me back!” Kai responds dramatically, throwing his hands up in the air and setting his head on the table. 

Nancy just blankly stares at Kai, quite unsure how to actually respond to his outburst. 

“So,” Nancy starts, “are you trying to make it obvious you like him, or do you want to be subtle about it?” 

Kai slowly looks up towards her and sighs. 

“I’m really not sure. Both maybe,” he responds with a pitying laugh.

“I get that,” Nancy says, kind of zoning out and propping her head up on her hand. 

Kai’s head snaps up. “You do?”

Nancy’s attention snaps back to reality. 

“Wait, what did I say?” she says, caught off guard.

Kai laughs at this. 

“You said you get it,” he says softly. “How?”

Nancy looks at him. 

“Do you know?” she asks him.

“Know what?” 

“Who I like?” 

Kai stops for a second. 

“Maybe? Is it Yeon-?”

Nancy opens her mouth, ready to respond, but just like clockwork, there was a loud crash and the sound of glass breaking filled the laboratory. 

Nancy screams, shuts her eyes, and covers her ears from the sudden loud sound. She also hears Kai yelling something about getting underneath the table, and glass breaking around the lab.

Her hands are still covering her ears as she tries to maneuver herself underneath the table. She feels stinging in her forearm and at her knees. 

Once she’s completely underneath the lab table, she opens her eyes just long enough to see Kai right next to her before she closes them again when she hears a crash of thunder.

Her eyes continue to stay shut, and her hands don’t move from her ears either, as she hears more glass breaking throughout the lab. 

She tries to drown out the noise by pressing her hands against her ears and squeezes her eyes shut harder at the growing noise. 

Right when Nancy didn’t know if she could take the noise anymore, it suddenly stopped. 

She hears glass moving around, and slowly opens her eyes to see Kai getting up from under the table. 

She begins to get up from under the table too, but curses at the pain she feels in her knees. 

“Shit,” she says, and sits back under the table. 

“Are you ok?” Kai asks, and goes to look under the table. 

Nancy looks towards him to see a cut on his face and some on his hands. 

“Glass is a bitch,” Nancy responds. 

She looks at the bloodied knees of her jeans and sighs. 

Kai laughs at this, and stands back up. 

“You can say that again. Damn, these cuts sting,” he tells her. 

Nancy hears glass crunching, which could only mean that Kai was walking around observing the damage. 

Then, he appears next to her side of the table. 

“Do you need help up?” he asks, extending his hand. 

Nancy sees the cuts on his hand, and takes his in her own, careful to avoid any of his cuts. 

As soon as she stands up, a light bulb busts in the corner of the room, and Nancy ducks her head and screams again. 

She hears more glass break, and Kai’s voice telling her to calm down.

“Calm down, calm down,” he tells her. He hadn’t let go of her hand, most likely because she was freaking out so much. “It’s ok, it’s just a light bulb busting and some glass breaking, it’s ok,” he continues. 

Nancy feels tears streaming down her face, and she feels like she can’t breath. But, she focuses on Kai’s voice and takes deep breaths to calm herself down. 

Once she starts to feel a bit normal again, she looks around the room to see what damage had been done. 

There was glass _everywhere_ ; it was all over the floor, the lab table, and the counters. The basement window was broken, the curtains were tattered, and rain was coming in. Along with that, Nancy saw some chemical vials that had broken and spilled everywhere. 

“Holy shit,” she says, turning around to observe the carnage more directly. “Vernon is going to _kill_ us.” 

“No he won’t, stop it,” Kai says, shaking Nancy’s arm. “This wasn’t our fault; he will understand.” 

Nancy nods absentmindedly, while still looking around frantically. 

“You’re right, you’re right,” she says, calming down a bit. “So, what the fuck do we do now?” 

Kai lets go of Nancy’s hand. “Well, we should probably tend to our cuts,” he says, beginning to walk around the lab. 

“Kai be _careful_ ,” she says, starting after him, but nearly slipping on the glass all over the floor. 

She screeches as she slips, but is able to regain her balance before she falls. 

“ _You_ be careful, Nancy,” he replies, stepping over a pile of glass.

He was headed toward the counter with the sink, right next to the cabinet with spilled chemicals. 

“Be careful over there! Don’t touch those chemicals,” Nancy says, trying to move as fast as she could to where Kai was. 

But at the speed she was moving, her knees were stinging, and so was her arm. 

Her cuts stung _so_ much. Worse than she had ever felt before in her life. 

Even worse than when she had scraped her hands and knees on the track from a dance routine last year.

_There’s no way this is normal_ , Nancy thought to herself. _I’ve had cuts worse than this that haven’t stung this bad_. 

“Kai, do your cuts sting like, way worse than normal, or am I just being paranoid?” Nancy says, stepping over the pile of glass to get to where Kai was. 

“Do they sting a lot more for you too?” Kai asked, his eyes wide. 

“Yes, they do! I thought I was going crazy,” Nancy quickly replied. “But, like, what the fuck does that mean? This amount of pain doesn’t seem normal, even for me.” 

Nancy is about to join Kai near the spilled chemicals, but then Kai puts his hand up to stop her. 

“Wait, stop,” he tells her, his left hand raised in her direction. 

She stops in her tracks, and the background noise of crunching glass stops too. 

“What is it?” she asks, worry evident in her voice. 

“Do you smell that?” he asks her.

“What do you mean? I can’t smell anything,” Nancy responds, and continues to walk towards Kai. 

As soon as she walked near the spilled chemicals, she understood what he meant. 

The smell was _strong_. It reeked of chemicals like ammonia and bleach, and her nose felt like it was burning and her head began to throb. 

“Wait, I smell it now,” she told him, pulling up her shirt to cover her nose. “What is that smell, and why is it so _strong_.” 

“I think it has something to do with these spilled chemicals,” he responds, pulling up his shirt as well. “It smells like ammonia, but amped up to one hundred.” 

“I know; it smells awful,” Nancy replied. “Come on let’s just move away from here.” 

She gestures towards Kai to move away from the spill, then turns around and walks away herself. 

As Nancy’s walking away, her cuts begin to sting even more, and the pain in her head becomes nearly unbearable. 

She yelps from the pain in her head and body and falls to the floor. 

She hears Kai yelling and asking her if she’s ok, but the pain all around her body is getting worse, and she starts feeling incredibly _cold_. 

“Nancy, are you ok?” Kai yells. She hears the crunch of glass under his feet moving closer towards her. 

As soon as he’s near her, he grabs one of her arms, but he quickly pulls away as soon as he does. 

“Holy shit, you’re so cold are you ok?” he asks, worry evident in his voice. 

She looks up towards Kai and extends her hand towards him, silently asking him to help her up. 

Right as Kai begins to reach for her hand, Nancy’s cuts begin to sting the worst they had since she got them, and feels a rush of coldness surge towards her extended hand, and once again, she screams. 

Kai must have been able to read the pain on her face, because he retracts his hand and moves away from Nancy before she even screamed. 

As she screams, she keeps her hand extended, and feels the rush of coldness move past her fingertips. 

As the coldness leaves her body, her cuts stop stinging and her body becomes encapsulated with warmth. 

She falls back to the floor and lies down, her heartbeat erratic, but feeling extremely drained.

“Nancy, holy shit, are you ok?” she hears Kai ask as he moves closer to her. 

But, before he gets to her, he catches a glimpse of the door, where Nancy’s hand had been aimed.

“Holy shit,” Kai breathes, his gaze locked on the door of the lab. 

Nancy still feels extremely exhausted and drained, and coincidentally, now feeling much too hot. 

But slowly, she lifts her head, and immediately feels like someone dumped an entire bucket of ice water onto her. 

Spikes of ice were plastered onto the door, and a thin film of ice was spreading around it. 

Nancy’s eyes widen at the incredibly shocking information her brain was taking in. 

“D-did I… cause that?” Nancy stammers softly, looking up at Kai.

He nods his head slowly, not breaking his gaze with the door. 

Just then, Nancy is hit with an incredibly sobering realization. 

The door was frozen shut. 

And she was the reason for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHH, I’m really happy with the way I wrote this chapter! It’s probably my favorite chapter I’ve written so far!! I hope you all liked it too!  
> Feel free to leave feedback, kudos, and comments. All will be appreciated!


	3. Trying to Explain Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More superpower discovery, and more explanations as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Sorry that this chapter is a day late, but my prewritten chapters are catching up to me. 😅 I had to take a little more time to edit this specific chapter, so I hope you enjoy it, even if it is a bit of a slower chapter!!
> 
> TW: Minimal depictions of blood, some loud noises, and descriptions of pain.  
> These things are seen sporadically in the chapter, so I **urge** you to read at your own discretion and **please** stay safe!!  
> But, please enjoy the third chapter of _When Things Finally Change_!

_”To lead you to an overwhelming question… Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ Let us go and make our visit.” - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot_

Nancy quickly gets up from the floor and practically runs over to assess the damage she had done to the door. 

She hears glass crunching behind her, meaning Kai was right on her heels. 

She reaches out to touch one of the ice spikes that closely resembles a stalagmite, just in ice form. 

Nancy turns around towards Kai, her hands shaking, and not just from the chill of the ice. 

“This is the kind of stuff that happens in comic books, not to people like me! What the hell is this?!” Nancy is yelling at this point, her thoughts erratic and racing, rapidly trying to process everything that is happening. 

“Damn you really are the ice queen, huh,” Kai says emotionlessly, eyes locked on the door that was still currently frozen shut. 

Nancy looked up towards him and his blank expression. He had no malice or general emotion in his voice at all, and it made Nancy almost want to laugh since Kai was almost always theatrical with his reactions. 

She sits down on the floor near the door and lets out a dry laugh. 

“You have an over-the-top reaction to things that barely require any reaction, but the second literal ice shoots out of my fingertips, _that’s_ when you’re at a loss for words,” Nancy says, laughing softly, and looking up at him. 

Kai finally tears his gaze away from the door to look down towards her. 

“What am I even supposed to say?” he says with a tired, humorless laugh, one of his hands slackly gesturing towards the door. 

Nancy laughs at that, while Kai decides to take a seat on the floor as well. 

As soon as he sits down, he lets out a small sound of pain and reaches towards the cut on his face. 

“Oh no, please not you too,” Nancy says, immediately moving closer towards Kai. 

He holds out one of his hands to signal her to stop, and he lets out another small cry of pain and brings his outstretched arm to his chest. 

“Kai, oh my gosh,” Nancy says frantically, her heart racing. 

She knows better than to interfere, based on what had just happened with her, but seeing Kai in pain and _this_ reactive, was freaking her out.

Nancy just watches, her face ashen and aghast, as Kai yelps in pain again, and curls himself up into a ball to try and lessen the pain.

Nancy felt so utterly helpless, just watching him like this, not sure what to do, and incredibly fearful as to what might happen next.

Just then, Kai’s body goes slack, and his breathing rate goes back to normal. 

She frantically looks around, not sure what kind of strange thing she should be expecting to happen next. 

Her eyes roam around the room, but her gaze is caught on the window. 

She doesn’t notice anything initially, but at closer observation, she sees it. 

There were plants. 

Coming, no, _growing_ , through the broken windows. 

“Kai, Kai, get up, look at what you’re doing,” Nancy says, her voice unstable and harsh.

Kai, looking extremely tired and drained, boosts himself up with one arm and looks around, dazed. 

“What? What am I doing?” he asks, his voice breathy. 

“Look,” Nancy replies, pointing towards the window where plants were still coming in. “Over there.” 

Kai slowly maneuvers himself on the floor to where he can see the window clearly. 

Shock is evident on his face when he sees the plants growing in through the broken windows. 

He moves farther away from the windows as the plants continue to go through. 

“How do I stop it? How do I make it stop?” he yelps, his voice cracking. 

“Calm down, calm down, calm down,” Nancy says, her words rushed and blended together. “Calm down, take a deep breath, and relax.” 

Kai shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

Nancy, not wanting to touch him for fear of prompting another visceral reaction, carefully takes a seat next to him, offering her company. 

Kai continues to take deep breaths with his eyes shut, until his breathing evens out and slows down back to normal. 

As soon as Kai opens his eyes, Nancy turns her head towards the window to see that the plants have stopped growing into the lab. 

Both of them exhale loudly and Nancy falls back against the floor, deeply and utterly exhausted from the turn of events that had taken place in no more than the past twenty minutes. 

After about a minute (much too short of a time, if Nancy does say so herself), she hears a knock on the door, followed by frantic banging on the door. 

She feels like she’s about to cry from exhaustion, and pain because granted, she’s lying down on a glass ridden floor and just got her energy drained from using her new found ice power. 

Kai gets up from next to her, and heads over to the door. As he’s getting up, Vernon’s voice is heard from the other side. 

“Guys, please, open up the door. Ow! Why is the door knob so cold?” he says from outside the door.

Kai doesn’t respond, instead he just stands in front of the ice covered door and stares at it. 

The ice had melted a little bit, but it was still going to be a while before it melted enough for the door to be opened again. 

“It’s kind of a long story,” Kai finally responded, sounding so incredibly _tired_. “I’m not sure I even have the energy to explain everything right now.” 

Another crack of thunder sounds from outside, and Nancy flinches from instinct at the loud noise. She looks over at the window and sees rain still streaming in. 

“Kai, oh my gosh, thank goodness you’re ok,” Nancy hears Vernon say from outside the door. “We heard crashing down here, but we had no idea what it was, and I was worried about you guys.” 

He pauses for a minute before calling through the door again. 

“Wait, Nancy! Where’s Nancy; is she ok?” he asks, concern evident in his voice. 

Kai takes a deep breath before responding. 

“Yeah, she’s fine. She’s just exhausted and on the floor right now,” he replies.

Nancy admired him for mustering up the energy and motivation to get up off the ground, and let alone talk to Vernon. She just wanted to stay on the ground and sleep. 

She looked over at Kai having a continued conversation with Vernon at the door and noticed how haggard and beat up he looked. 

If he looked that bad, Nancy couldn’t even begin to imagine the damage that was done to her small five-foot-three frame.

Nancy looks at the knees of her jeans and noticed that the blood had begun to dry on the fabric. She slowly puts her head back down on the tile, apathetic to it. 

“Wait, what the fuck do you _mean_ Nancy froze the door?” Vernon says loudly from outside the lab. 

“It means exactly what the fuck it means,” Kai replies, slowly taking a seat on the floor next to the door. “Nancy froze the fucking door.” 

“But _how_?” Vernon asks, completely and utterly lost. “How the fuck does that kind of thing even _happen_?” 

“Your guess is as good as mine, buddy,” Kai says, leaning his head back against a cabinet. 

“Ok,” Vernon starts, sounding unsure of what else to do or say. “Wait, you said the window got broken by lighting right? Do you think I could crawl in through there?” 

Kai looks over towards the window to gauge the space. “Just be mindful of the broken glass and the plants around it,” he replies. 

“The plants?” Vernon asks. 

“Don’t ask,” Kai sighs, sounding defeated. 

“Noted,” Vernon says. “I’ll be right there.” 

Both Nancy and Kai hear Vernon’s footsteps fade away as he walks down his hallway, and most likely outside to the basement window. 

Nancy shuts her eyes to try and slow down her racing thoughts and breathes in and out. 

The pain she had been feeling earlier from her cuts and her exhaustion were catching up to her, and she nearly dozed off until she heard some glass crunch and someone’s voice say _ow_. 

She opens her eyes and looks over towards the window to see Vernon crouching near the window, looking extremely confused and distraught. 

“What the fuck happened?” he asks, to no one in particular. 

“To us or the lab?” Nancy asks from her spot on the floor. She looks over to see Kai leaning against a cabinet with his eyes shut. 

Vernon’s gaze travels back and forth between Nancy and Kai a few times before he says, “Both. Either or. I don’t really care, I just need some clarity.” 

He looks around for somewhere to sit and settles on one of the lab stools. He proceeds to make an incredibly dumb decision and wipes off the glass on the stool with his bare hand. 

He sucks in a breath at the pain of glass piercing his skin and examines his hand. 

Nancy can’t really see the collateral damage done, but she does see some flashes of red on his hand. 

Vernon then pulls one of his sleeves down to protect his hand and wipes the remaining glass off the chair and takes a seat. 

When he finished, Vernon sat down and looked towards Nancy, ready to listen.

Nancy takes a deep breath and looks over at Kai, who had opened his eyes to look at Vernon. 

“Well,” Nancy starts, “you had just left the lab to go ask your mom for help, but I guess lightning struck and hit the window.” She pointed towards the now broken basement window accompanied with the tattered curtains. “I’m not really sure how that happened if I’m being honest, but my guess was that the lightning hitting caused a chain reaction around the lab because glass just started breaking left and right.” 

“We hid under the lab table to protect ourselves from flying glass, but we still got cuts and scrapes,” Kai said, raising one of his hands for physical proof. “After that, we were walking around the lab, and our cuts were stinging worse than normal. Then, there was this horrible smell, and then after that, Nancy froze the door.” 

“I almost passed out, and that’s when Kai started making plants grow through the broken window,” Nancy adds. “And now, we’re here.” 

As soon as she finishes talking, a loud crash of thunder sounds from outside, and all three of them flinch at the sudden noise. 

“Well,” Vernon says. “We should probably go tend to your cuts.” 

He takes a look at the door that was still frozen shut, but the pool of water around it was growing. 

“I’ll take care of that later,” he says, gesturing towards the door. 

“How do you suggest we get out of here, oh wise one,” Nancy asks sarcastically, slowly making her way to sit up.

Vernon gets off the stool, scoots it near the basement window, and hits the cushion with the palm of his hand. 

“Parkour,” he says, a smile on his face. 

Nancy sighs loudly and lies back down on the floor, but she’s already laughing before her back hits the ground. 

Kai groans, and stands up, but he’s laughing as well as he makes his way over to the stool. 

Vernon climbed out first, since he was the one with the least amount of injuries, and that way he could help Kai and Nancy climb out of the basement. 

As soon as he got out of the window, Kai got up on the stool. 

It was a struggle for him to try and squeeze his six-foot tall frame through the fairly small basement window. The task required Vernon grabbing his hands and Nancy having to hold the stool still so that he didn’t accidentally fall off. 

Once Kai safely made it through the basement window, it was Nancy’s turn to get up on the stool. She was able to get out fairly easily just because she was fairly small. 

She grabbed onto one of Vernon’s hands as he helped her out and pulled her through the window. 

Eventually, all three of them were out of the basement. 

Nancy collapses onto the ground, letting the light drizzle of the night rain bathe her. 

“Nancy you need to get up so we can go back inside,” Vernon told her, tugging at her hand that he hadn’t let go of. 

Nancy sighs and slowly gets up. “Ok, ok, I’m getting up,” she says. 

Once she’s up, the three of the students make their way to the front of their house, and Vernon lets them in. 

Nancy’s teeth begin to chatter as she walks into Vernon’s house. She started feeling really cold again, and she hugged herself to hopefully warm herself up. 

“Hey, are you doing ok?” Kai whispers to her. 

Nancy nods tiredly. “Yeah, I’m doing ok, just a little bit cold,” she responds. 

Kai nods, but worry was still evident in his eyes, due to the events that he had just previously witnessed. 

Vernon leads the two of them up a flight of stairs, and lets them into a room. 

“Here, this is my room. Just stay here while I go get the disinfectants,” he says. 

Nancy takes a seat on the floor near his bed, and grabs the blanket from his bed to try and warm herself up. She’s still shivering, but she did feel like she was slowly warming up. 

“Are you doing ok?” she hears Kai ask from behind her. 

“Yeah,” Nancy croaks out. But as soon as she says that, she feels her hands grow extremely cold extremely quickly. 

“Shit,” Nancy curses, and frantically attempts to cover her hands with the blanket. 

She hears Kai move closer to her, and she tries to bury her hands under the blanket more. But, her hands start to burn from the cold, and she sucks in her breath to try and stave off the pain. 

The pain subsided a meager amount, so Nancy looked underneath the blanket to look at her hands. 

As soon as she uncovered her hands from the blanket, ice shot forward from them and towards one of Vernon’s dressers.

Kai lets out a yelp and moves towards Nancy, while Nancy just stares awestruck at the ice and her hands. 

There’s a sigh at the door, and both Nancy and Kai turn towards the noise. 

Vernon looks incredibly defeated standing in the doorway. 

“Thank goodness it’s Friday,” Vernon says, walking towards the pair near his bed. 

He hands both of them a hand towel, and takes a seat next to them on the floor. 

“Here’s some alcohol and hydrogen peroxide,” Vernon says, placing two bottles on the floor in front of them. 

Nancy grabs the bottle of alcohol and pours a generous amount on the towel Vernon gave her. She started dabbing at the dried blood at her knees, and sucked in a breath to keep herself from wincing from the pain.

“Ouch, fuck,” Kai says, and Nancy turns to see Vernon dabbing at the cuts on his hands. 

“Hold still,” Vernon replies, trying to keep Kai’s hand from moving. 

“It fucking _hurts_ ,” Kai says, pain evident in his voice. 

“I know, I’m literally holding a towel drenched in alcohol with a cut on my hand,” Vernon replies, looking directly at Kai.

Kai sighs and just resorts to talking shit instead of squirming about the pain. 

“I fucking hate this so much,” he says, while Vernon started treating the cuts on his face. “This is why people hate Mr. Kim’s class so much. It’s because shit like this _always_ happens whenever he tries to be ‘creative’ and ‘quirky,’” he finishes, making air quotes.

Nancy snorts. “People hate Mr. Kim’s class, but I _highly_ doubt it has anything to do with lightning striking the basement and causing a chemical reaction that would result in gaining superpowers.” 

Kai opens his mouth to say something else, but Vernon beats him to it, seemingly curious about what the fuck exactly went down in the lab. 

“Could you elaborate more on that?” Vernon asks, handing Kai some ointment for him to put on his own cuts. He turns towards Nancy. “I know you already explained what happened in general, but could you explain more about what happened with the chemicals and how it felt when you shot ice from your hands?” 

Nancy finishes patting the towel against her knees and leans back against Vernon’s bed. 

She lets out a long sigh. 

“Yeah,” she replies somberly. “Basically, what happened was that after you left, I think lightning hit the basement window or something, and it caused a bunch of glass to break and chemical reactions to go off in the lab.”

Nancy takes a deep breath, bracing herself to continue, but thankfully, Kai takes over.

“Then, after the glass shattered and stuff, we decided to look and walk around the lab to see what damage had been done. Then there was this _awful_ smell. It was horrible, nothing like we’ve ever smelt before. And then our cuts started stinging _so_ bad, and I think it was because of the chemicals in the air or something.”

“After that, I started feeling an awful pain all over my body,” Nancy continues. “Everything hurt so bad, and I started to feel really really _cold_. And it was like all the coldness got concentrated into my right hand. Then I froze the fucking door.” Nancy finishes. 

“How did it feel after you froze the door?” Vernon asks, listening intently. 

“I felt exhausted,” Nancy continues, now bringing her wounded knees up to her chest. “I was tired, but my heart was beating too fast, and then I felt _too_ warm.”

Vernon nods his head, trying to comprehend what exactly had happened with Nancy in the lab. 

He turns away from Nancy to look at Kai. 

“What about you?” Vernon asks. 

Kai looks caught off guard, his eyes wide, freezing right before he dabbed one of his cuts on his arm. 

“What about me?” he responds seriously.

“How did you feel right before you started making the plants grow through the window?” Nancy asks quietly from behind Vernon. 

Kai continues to absentmindedly dabbing at the wounds on his hands, a faraway look in his eyes. 

“Well, I felt really weird. I don’t think it was anything like the pain Nancy was describing, but it was more like a… force or something was pulling me towards the window, and it made me feel sick. And my head! It was throbbing, and it felt like it could possibly split apart. Then, those feelings both just stopped, and Nancy told me that plants were growing through the broken windows,” Kai says. 

Vernon nods again, processing the new information Kai just told him.

He opens his mouth to say something, but then he closes it again. 

After a second, he decides to say something anyway.

“I’m sorry you both had to go through that,” Vernon tells them, looking at both Kai and Nancy. 

Nancy sighs, and lies down on Vernon’s bedroom floor.

“It is what it is,” Nancy responds aloofly. “There’s nothing we can do about it now. What’s done is done.” 

“At least we were there together though,” Kai says, glancing over at Nancy.

“Yeah, at least we weren’t alone for that,” Nancy reinforces. “I have no idea how I would’ve reacted if I had been in that kind of situation alone.”

“I’m sorry for leaving you guys alone,” Vernon says solemnly. 

“There was no way for you to know,” Nancy responds softly, looking at him. “It’s not your fault.” 

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Kai adds. “We weren’t alone, and that’s all that matters.” 

They all finish up cleaning up their wounds, and after they’re done, they’re all collectively exhausted. 

Kai is dozing off on Vernon’s bed, while Vernon is putting away all the medical supplies and ointments. 

Nancy is leaning against the front frame of Vernon’s bed, almost succumbing to the sweet release of sleep, when he walks back into his room. 

“Hey, um,” Vernon starts, and Nancy jerks awake. 

She looks up at him from the foot of the bed, waiting for him to continue. 

“Do you need a place to stay for tonight or…” he asks hesitantly.

Nancy quickly looks around and realizes that she was, much to her own dismay, not at her own house when all she really wanted to do was fall asleep.

“Um, it’s ok. I think I’ll just go ahead and head home,” Nancy responds.

“Are you sure?” Vernon asks. “I’m really not trying to force you to stay here, but I’m just not sure if it would be the best idea for you to drive home alone right now.” 

Nancy sighs and nods her head.

“Yeah, I understand,” she says, defeated. “I might call Ahin to see if she can come and pick me up, then I might get my car tomorrow if that’s cool with you.”

“Yeah, that’s fine with me,” Vernon replies. “Let me know if she can come and get you.”

He walks back out of the room, but glances over at Kai knocked out on his bed before he leaves completely.

Nancy grabs her phone and attempts to turn it on, only to realize that it was dead.

“Hey, Vernon,” Nancy calls out sheepishly. 

He pops his head back into his bedroom.

“Do you have a phone charger or something?” Nancy asks, holding her dead phone up. 

“Oh, yeah, I do,” he says, and walks over to his nightstand to dig for a charger. 

Nancy follows him over, tentatively standing behind him and peeking around him to see what he was doing. 

Vernon pulls out a charger from the drawer of his night stand, bringing with it multiple graded papers and more clumps of wires, and hands it over to Nancy.

“Here you go,” he says with a small smile. 

She grabs the charger from him and plugs it in beside the nightstand. 

As soon as she plugs the charger into her phone, there’s a spark both at the wall and phone plug.

Nancy screeches and drops her phone to the floor as the sparks continue. 

Nancy stares at the damage dumbfounded while Vernon looks at his now ruined wall plug and charger quite calmly.

“Oh wow,” he says, unsure of what to do next. 

Nancy stares at Vernon in shock at the fact that he wasn’t reacting more at one of his outlets and charger now being unusable.

“I’m so sorry,” Nancy quickly apologizes. “But how the fuck did this happen?”

“It probably had something to do with the chemicals,” Vernon responds. “If you got chemicals on or in your phone, that’s probably what caused the spark.” 

Nancy nods slowly, thinking of what to do next with a now broken phone.

Her mom wasn’t strict, so she didn’t really have to worry about getting home before a certain time, but it was approaching midnight, and she was tired, and now, phoneless. 

Nancy lets out a long sigh and looks down at her broken phone on Vernon’s carpet. 

Vernon yanks the wire of the charger and pulls it out of the wall as carefully as he could. 

As soon as he does that, the lights flicker then shut off.

Then, in the dark, Nancy is able to see Kai roll off of Vernon’s bed and land with a thud on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! These next few chapters will most likely be a bit slow (like this one) because we’re building up a plot, but I’m really excited for what’s to come!!  
> I hope Nancy’s interactions with the boys aren’t coming off as too romantic.😅I really want her relationships with them to be perceived as platonic but still showcase their closeness, so I hope I’m doing it justice and not writing them to be perceived romantically.😖If you have any advice on how I can improve how I write their interactions, please LMK!!  
> I really appreciate everyone who is reading and interacting with this story because it means so much to me, so please feel free to leave feedback, kudos, and comments. All will be appreciated!❤️
> 
> (Oh, also, go stream TXT's new comeback, "Blue Hour")!! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo… I told myself that once I got 1000 hits on _Let’s Get Down to “Business_ ,” I would forget how to act.  
> So, on August 11th, I hit 1005 hits on that respective story, and I was correct ah ha ha.  
> But, on a more serious note, I’m so incredibly grateful to anyone who has read that story because truly, that story means so so much to me (it was the first fic I drafted and my first chaptered fic on here!), and I truly hope that it brought you some happiness in these trying times.  
> Thinking about that story is so interesting to me because I started it before the pandemic and didn’t finish it until after it had hit. Compared to when I started writing and drafting that story, I wasn’t even the same person when I finished and published it LOL.  
> Also, I _really_ wanted to publish the first chapter of this story exactly when I got 1000 hits on that story, but I’ve been lacking inspiration, so I wasn’t able to do that. I do apologize. I’ve been having a bit of a tough time writing this story.  
> I really _really_ love this concept though, and the main characters are my bias line, so I really want to do this story justice! So, please, don’t be afraid to leave comments, kudos, and feedback. I really appreciate them. :) (I also really love interacting with people who read my work)!  
> Thank you all so much for reading! <3


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